Library

Karlshochschule Library

What if a library knew no spatial boundaries and thus turned an entire university into a treasure trove of knowledge? The centrally located library forms the heart of the university, but reading and working areas are spread across the entire campus and are open to all students and visitors. This means you are always surrounded by knowledge and have opportunities to retreat anywhere on campus, allowing you to dream and read about foreign cultures and new knowledge landscapes.

The reference library contains around 15,000 media units and a number of current print journals. The library is open to all interested parties. Access for external users is possible during service hours Monday to Friday.

Contact:

Mandy Rosenberg
Karlshochschule Library
Karlstrasse 36 – 38
76133 Karlsruhe

Phone: +49 721 48095 318
library@karlshochschule.de

Note: Please always refer to the current guide to using the Karlshochschule Library. The opening and service times are subject to change and are regularly communicated via updates on the library website.

The Karlshochschule library is a member:

Der Deutsche Bibliotheksverband e.V.

AG BpH

DFG Nationallizenzen

Literature research

Campus licenses databases

Magazines

The library’s print journals are listed in the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB). You can also search there if you are looking for a particular journal and would like to know in which library in Germany you can obtain it. The ZDB is one of the world’s largest databases for the indexing of periodicals, newspapers, serials and other periodical publications from all countries, in all languages, without time restrictions, in printed, electronic or other form. The ZDB contains more than 1.8 million titles, including 191,000 e-journals and 61,000 newspapers, and records the holdings of more than 4,000 German and Austrian libraries. The ZDB does not list individual article titles, only journal titles!

In addition, you can access many scientific journals in full text via the Electronic Journals Library (EZB). If you cannot access the full text of the journal, you can find out which library has the print edition of the journal via the journal database (ZDB).

Search for journal articles

To search for articles on a specific topic, you first need to search essay databases. You can find these via the database information system (DBIS). Click on the desired subject area and then sort the databases according to “Database types”. This provides you with all the article databases for a subject area and allows you to search for articles in these databases.

Once you have found out which journal contains the article you are looking for, you can first try to obtain it in full text via the Electronic Journals Library (EZB ).

If the journal is not available in full text, you can use the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB) to find out which library in the area has the journal as a print edition and obtain the article there.

A-Z

Acquisition proposal

You can suggest literature that you miss during your studies.

The acquisition proposal can be submitted via library@karlshochschule.de or the acquisition proposal form. Before you send your request, please check the catalog to see if the title is already available.

List of books

We have a systematic list of books by subject area. We use our library system to enable thematic access to the open access display. The aim of a systematic arrangement is to gather books on a topic in one place. The library’s presentation system is constantly being developed. The current version of the library system can be viewed here. The location of the books on the shelf, the “shelfmark” can be researched via the search in the library catalog.

Lending

Borrowing is only possible with a valid Karlshochschule student ID. Books that are available more than once can be borrowed for two weeks. Extensions are possible if the book is not reserved. Reference collection can only be borrowed by overnight loan or weekend loan. Periodicals are excluded from lending.

Bachelor’s and Master’s theses

A print copy of every Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis written by our graduates up to 2018 that was rated very highly is available for viewing in the library. The works can be requested at the library desk during lending hours. Viewing takes place exclusively in the quiet area of the library and ends when the library counter is open for lending. Works submitted up to 2015 can be searched in the online catalog. The copies of Master’s and Bachelor’s theses submitted from 2019 onwards will be made available as password-protected digital copies in the library’s Infopool. The copyright for all originals of the attached pictures, plans or the like lies solely with the author of the respective work. Any reproduction is prohibited.

Terms of use

The Library Regulations of Karlshochschule International University document the general rules and rules of use, duties of care and replacement obligations, they regulate registration and borrowing, they define admission to use and borrowing, the user groups and their loan periods, the handling of the various stock groups and interlibrary loan. Download here (PDF) and in the Infopool. A printed version is also available in the library.

Library catalog

Our library holdings are freely searchable online in our library catalog via the Karlsruhe library portal. Search instructions can be found here (PDF).

Library team

Librarian Mrs. Mandy Rosenberg: mrosenberg@karlshochschule.org

Citavi reference management

Karlshochschule has a campus license for the software “Citavi for Windows – Reference Management and Knowledge Organization”. Employees and students at our university can use this powerful program for studying, teaching and research at their workplace and at home. Citavi supports students and researchers in all phases of their work and research, with reference management and knowledge organization. With the campus license, students and employees of Karlshochschule can use the full version of “Citavi Pro or Team” free of charge. Citavi can be used to manage literature, search specialist databases and library catalogs, process literature, collect citations, organize knowledge, design texts, plan tasks and automatically create bibliographies in different citation styles. The latest version is Citavi 6. Help on the Citavi program can be found under “Tutorials”. Use Citavi campus license now

Databases

The database information system (DBIS) provides access to all freely accessible scientific databases as well as to databases that are only licensed by Karlshochschule and to the national licenses released for Karlshochschule. The databases are divided into subject areas and can be sorted by database type. Access to the databases licensed by Karlshochschule can be found on the library homepage under the link “Databases”.

EBSCO Business Source Premier (BSP)

The Business Source Premier (BSP) database is a research database on the subject of business. It contains full-text articles from more than 2,300 journals, including over 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. It also includes full texts dating back to 1886 as well as searchable, cited sources up to 1998. Business Source Premier contains full-text articles on all areas of business such as marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. The database is updated daily via EBSCOhost. The database is freely accessible within the university. For use outside the university, a connection to the university network must be established via VPN (Virtual Private Network). Users can access the Business Source Premier database via the database information system (DBIS) or directly via the link to the BSP database.

EBSCO Political Science Complete (PSC)

The Political Science Complete (PSC) contains full texts of more than 520 journals as well as indexes and abstracts for more than 2,900 titles (including recognized scientific journals), including many single copies. The database also includes over 340 full-text reference works and monographs as well as over 36,000 full-text conference documents, including those from the International Political Science Association. The database is freely accessible within the university. For use outside the university, a connection to the university network must be established via VPN (Virtual Private Network). Users can access the Business Source Premier database via the database information system (DBIS) or directly via the link to PSC.

Electronic media

The Karlshochschule library offers a number of electronic media (databases, eJourals). When using all databases and e-media provided by Karlshochschule that require a license, the respective license and copyright provisions must be observed. Please note the following terms of use and access information.

Electronic magazines

Electronic journals are listed in the Electronic Journals Library (EZB), which provides access to full texts of eJournals. The Electronic Journals Library is a service designed to facilitate the use of academic journals on the Internet. It offers a fast, structured and standardized platform for online access to full-text articles. It contains thousands of titles from all areas of research, some of which are only available online. The EZB contains journals that are made available by aggregators and journals that are accessible to everyone free of charge. In addition, the participating libraries offer their users access to the journals to which they subscribe. The journals are presented in lists sorted by research area. The availability of full-text access is indicated by traffic light symbols according to the license situation of the individual member libraries. Some journals in the EZB are marked as hybrid journals. This means that these journals may contain some freely accessible articles (open access). It is NOT possible to search for articles in the EZB itself, but only for the journal title, which then links to the individual homepages of the journals. The subject databases or article databases, accessible via the database information system (DBIS), are available for researching articles.

Interlibrary loan

Media that are not available in our university library or in any other library in Karlsruhe can be ordered via interlibrary loan from other libraries. Entire books and copies from books and journals can be requested. The prerequisite for an interlibrary loan is that the requested item is owned by a German library. Online interlibrary loans can be ordered via the link on the homepage itself(instructions for online interlibrary loan orders). If you have any problems, you can use the interlibrary loan request form, which can be sent by e-mail to library@karlshochschule.de or handed in at the library desk. The fee for an interlibrary loan order is €1.50. The delivery of books can take between two and four weeks, copy orders from a few days to two weeks. Once the order has arrived in our library, the interested party will be notified by e-mail. Books can only be borrowed or returned at the library counter during lending hours. We take care of the delivery and return of interlibrary loans. The loan period is usually four weeks minus approx. three days for the return shipment. TANs for online ordering are available in the library during lending hours or can be requested by e-mail with the subject “TAN request” at library@karlshochschule.de.

Movies

The films in the library’s collection are located in the display case at the back of the quiet area. To borrow a DVD, take the empty case of the desired movie and take it to the library counter where the DVD will be handed to you. The loan of films is exclusively for private use and takes place at the library desk during the loan periods. You can rent the films for 2 weeks, extensions are possible. All films are searchable in the online catalog.

Journal Ranking

A journal ranking provides an overview of which journals have a high scientific ranking in a particular subject area. On the one hand, they are based on citation analyses and, on the other, journal rankings are based on surveys of researchers. Researchers classify the journals into categories (A+, A, B, C, D, E). Articles from an A journal are considered to be of very high quality by experts. One criterion for compiling such rankings is the so-called impact factor (IF) of a journal, which is calculated on the basis of how often a journal has been cited in other journals. For this purpose, bibliographies from journal articles are analyzed. The more frequently a journal is cited, the higher the “impact” of this journal for the relevant subject area.

Selected databases with bibliometric data:

JSTOR

JSTOR is an interdisciplinary database for scientific journals. Karlshochschule has access to around 300 journals from the fields of business and the humanities and social sciences from the first volume up to a “moving wall”, which is between two and five years before the current volume. The database is freely accessible within the university. For use outside the university, a connection to the university network must be established via VPN (Virtual Private Network). JSTOR can be accessed via the database information system (DBIS) or directly via www.jstor.org.

Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog

The Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK) offers the possibility to search in library and book trade catalogs worldwide. The majority of academic libraries in Germany can also be searched simultaneously with one search query.

Loan period

The loan period for borrowed media is two weeks, renewals (see there) are possible if there are no reservations.

Master Modules

The module literature for the Master’s degree programs is listed separately by semester and module. The current version of the Mastermodules Library classification can be viewed here:

Media offer

Karlshochschule’s collection currently comprises around 15,000 media units and a number of current print journals.

National licenses

In order to sustainably improve the supply of electronic specialist information at German universities, research institutions and scientific libraries, the German Research Foundation has been funding the acquisition of national licenses since 2004. The aim is to provide academics, students and private individuals interested in science with free access to databases, digital text collections and electronic journals. The subscribed database services of the Karlshochschule library can be accessed via the database information system (DBIS).

New acquisitions

Present stock

The library’s reference collection includes media that should be available to all users at all times and that cannot be borrowed or can only be borrowed under certain conditions – see “Borrowing”. Reference books can be recognized by the yellow sticker “Präsenzbestand” on the spine. It is possible to borrow items on the premises during lending hours. To do this, register the media at one of the counters and leave your student ID. They must be returned to the service counter by 5 p.m. at the latest. Overnight loans and weekend loans are also possible.

Return books

A return box is available in front of the quiet area of the library on the 1st floor for returning media from the library.

Semester apparatus

The semester apparatus contains the relevant documents and media for lectures compiled by the respective lecturers, which should be permanently available to all lecture participants. As these are exclusively reference copies, it is not possible to borrow them. The term books are centrally located in the front area of the library.

Statista

Statista is one of the world’s largest statistics portals. The statistics database is the basis for a quick and comprehensive search for figures, data and facts with immediate access to the statistics. Statista bundles statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources conveniently on four platforms: German, English, French and Spanish. The academic citation function makes it possible to automatically display the original source in five internationally standardized citation forms. Statista can be accessed via the Statista can be accessed via the database information system (DBIS) or directly via www.statista.com.

TAN

A TAN is a transaction number that is valid as a “one-time password” for exactly one online remote rental order. The TAN must be entered in the order form to complete an online interlibrary loan order and verifies the order in the interlibrary loan portal. After sending the order, the TAN is validated. TANs can be requested from the library by e-mail with the subject “TAN request”.

Tutorials

Extension

Renewals for borrowed media can be requested by e-mail to library@karlshochschule.de or by telephone on +49 721 48095-318 or in person at the library desk during lending hours. Renewals are possible at the earliest 2 days before the loan period expires. Renewals are not possible if the medium is reserved. We grant up to 5 extensions on a loan copy. Overnight loans and weekend loans will not be extended.

Reservation

Reservations for borrowed media can be made by e-mail to library@karlshochschule.de or by telephone on +49 721 48095-318 or in person at the library desk during lending hours. As soon as the next copy of the reserved book has been returned, you will be notified by e-mail. The reservation is then valid for a maximum of one week, after which the book will be returned to the shelf.

VPN access

In order to be able to use the electronic services of Karlshochschule from home, a connection to the university network must be established via VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Find out how to set up the available VPN client in the Infopool IT.

Magazines

The library has a range of print journals. Journal issues and volumes cannot be borrowed. It is possible to borrow items on the premises during lending hours. Please leave your student ID at one of the counters. They must be returned to the service counter by 5 p.m. at the latest. For access to archived journal volumes, please ask at the library desk or send an e-mail to library@karlshochschule.de.

The library’s print journals are indexed in the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB) (see there). You can also search there if you are looking for a particular journal and want to know in which library in Germany it is available.

Electronic journals (see there) can be searched via the Electronic Journals Library (EZB), where you can access many scientific journals in full text. If you are unable to access the journal in full text, you can find out which library has a print version of the journal via the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB) (see there) and order copies of articles via interlibrary loan (see there).

Journal articles

To search for journal articles on a specific topic, you can use so-called article or full-text databases. For the field of economics, for example, we recommend our EBSCOBusinessSource Premier database (see there). These and many other article databases can be found via the Database Information System (DBIS) (see Databases). Click on the desired subject area and then sort the databases according to “Database types”. This provides you with all the article databases for a subject area and allows you to search for articles in these databases. The article databases contain details of the journals in which the articles you are looking for can be found and also offer the full texts. If you have received the information in DBIS as to which journal contains the article you are looking for, you can first try to obtain it in full text via the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) (see Electronic Journals). For a targeted search for articles in full text from a specific electronic journal, it is advisable to search for the journal title via the Electronic Journals Library(EZB) and then follow the link to the journal platform. If the journal is not available in full text, you can use the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB)(see there) to find out which library in the area has the journal as a print edition and obtain the article there.

Journal database (ZDB)

The Serials Database (ZDB) is one of the world’s largest databases in which you can find periodicals, i.e. everything that has been and is published periodically in printed or electronic form and is available in the holdings of German and Austrian libraries. The ZDB also lists the titles held by more than 4,000 German and Austrian libraries. But: The ZDB does not list individual articles, only journal titles!

An example of using the journal database (ZDB): There is no access to the full text of an article either in the databases or via the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) – What to do now?